Petri Dish Promenade

More than a year ago, I started embroidering a piece of fabric that I had soy wax batiked and then dyed. I am not an embroiderer, and I don’t know what the heck I am doing, so was just having fun. It was a very portable project, and I took it to my kids’ soccer practices, piano lessons, dentist appointments and our beach vacation. I just stuffed the fabric, flosses – and bits of thread I had been collecting that unraveled off fabric when I washed and dried it — into a little basket, and took it with me whenever I knew I’d have some time to work.

I called this embroidered piece Petri Dish Promenade because it reminded me of bacteria cultured in a petri dish. You can see the embroidery stage of this piece in my previous blog post here. But everything came to a standstill because I couldn’t make up my mind about how to finish it.

Then, earlier this summer, I dyed a piece of silk-cotton blend fabric called “Radiance” and it turned out beautifully. The silk gives it a wonderful sheen and shimmer. Even better, lots of the colors were similar to those in the embroidered piece. Last night, I trimmed a window in the silk-cotton fabric, and I’m getting ready to hand appliqué the pieces together. Next I have to decide whether to do more embroidery out into the frame, and whether to quilt the piece by hand or by machine.

Gingher scissors factory sale… and a giveaway!

Some of my friends and I took a road trip to Greensboro, NC, today to attend the Gingher scissors factory sale. The photo above shows just some of the loot I brought home. I’m not going to tell you how many pairs I got… that would be too embarrassing!

Here are my friends with all of our stuff stowed in the back of Alisan’s van.

There were cutting mats, all kinds of scissors, rotary cutters (left handed only, boo!), acrylic rulers, and paper cutters. Nothing was more than $10. There were lots of small Gingher utility scissors like these for 50 cents:

The nice heavy dress shears were only about $4 a pair, and lots of the embroidery scissors were only $2 a pair. I also got some wonderful serrated kitchen scissors. These are all overstocks or discontinued merchandise.

We all bought an 18" paper cutter or two. At $10 each, how could we pass this up?

If you live in the area, there’s still time to get some of the goods! The sale is today and tomorrow (Sept. 19) and next weekend, Saturday and Sunday Sept. 25-26. Saturday hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday hours are noon to 5 p.m. The address is 322-D Edwardia Drive, Greensboro NC 27409.

And now for the fun part!

I bought an extra pair to share with you! One lucky reader will win these darling 4" embroidery scissors,with a retail price of more than $35. Just leave me a comment before noon on Saturday, Sept. 25, and tell me about your favorite road trip (where you went, why, and with whom) and you’ll be entered in the drawing. I’ll pull a name at random. Please enter only once. Check back on Saturday afternoon to see if you’ve won.

The give-away is over... Congratulations, Robbie (from Michigan)... You won!

More great pieces for the SAQA Auction

Ferns
by Karen Kiley Olson
Cotton fabric, sun-printed by the artist using Setacolor paints. Hand embroidered with perle cotton, hand-dyed and commercial embroidery floss, rayon threads.

It’s right around the corner! The Studio Art Quilt Associates’ 2010 Benefit Auction starts this Monday, Sept. 20 at 2 p.m. EST! Here are more of the wonderful pieces of fiber art up for auction. SAQA artists have donated more than 280 small works, most 12" square. The funds raised through the auction allow SAQA to support exhibitions, catalogs and outreach programs. Last year 235 members’ work brought in $47,325.

All pieces start at $750 on the first day, then drop each day, to $550, $350, $250, $150 and $75. Want to learn more about how the auction works? Click here.

Here are a few of the fabulous pieces available for purchase, shown with the artist’s comments. You can click on the names (if highlighted) to go to their websites, and click on the photos to see the pieces close up. 

A Balancing Act
by Patricia S. Kicklighter
Circles consist of leather, silk, silk brocade, tweed, batik. Machine and hand-stitched.

Poppy Fields

by Desiree Dianne Habicht
I rescue all of the paper towels my students throw away after teaching a fabric painting class. These paper towels are often more beautiful than some of the fabric. Background is painted fabric, poppies are painted paper towels. Stitched and beaded.

Nature: Personification of Chaos & Order
by Anna Hergert
Hoarfrost is my favorite winter phenomena, which quickly disappears once the sun appears, warming up the air and causing the ice to fall in chunks from tree branches.

The Gift
by Carol Tamasiunas
My sister gave me a beautiful bouquet of tulips for my birthday. I decided to memorialize my gift of spring.

Petal Study
by Jeri C. Pollock
Petal Study is about creating transparency and depth as well as texture to produce an organic feel and natural movement while not attempting to re-create nature itself.

Growing Roots
by Tove Piraja Hansen
Time is in: no more obstacles, no more fights, no more excuses. The right frames and right timing are here. Now is about growing and consolidating your choices. Enjoy it! Hand-dyed background (shiny fabric) with tulle. The land and tree are miscellaneous fabrics that are layered as a bas-relief.  

 

My piece, Red Coleus (above), goes on the auction block the first day. You can read more about it on my blog here or on the SAQA website here. 

Fun in the Cotton Patch

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of teaching a workshop for the Cotton Patch Quilters of Athens, Georgia. What a great group! 


This was my Wholecloth Painting workshop. Students worked from one of three of my original photos to create a small painted fabric piece. Here are my samples for the class (shown painted, before stitching):

Here are the students in action:

 

And here are some of them with their pieces at the end of the workshop:

 

I was so proud of what this group of students achieved. Some had painting experience, but had to adjust to working with a different type of paint, and on fabric. Some had never painted. It was amazing to see how different each woman’s work was. While some struggled at first to make theirs look like my sample, I encouraged each student to do what came naturally, and develop her own style. They all turned out great in their own way.  

I also tried hard to discourage “negative talk” and get each student to think about what they liked in their work, rather than the things they were not so happy about. Or to frame their criticisms in a constructive way, so that we could work on changing what they did not like. Too often, students listen to that little devil on the shoulder whispering put-downs.

The workshop was held at the Lyndon House Arts Center in Athens. What a marvelous place! It has gallery space, as well as wonderfully equipped classrooms and meeting areas. 

A special thanks to Mary and Fay, who made everything so easy and pleasant for me. These kind of program chairs are a joy to work with!

Art shoes!

The Pandoras, my local fiber arts group, met today to make art shoes. We followed an excellent tutorial on painting shoes on artist Lyric Kinard’s blog. Basically, you strip the finish off an old pair of shoes, then gesso them, and paint with acrylic paint. I only have one of my shoes finished so far; it is shown above. I’m pretty excited about the results!

Michele, Grace, DeLane and I gathered around DeLane’s brightly lit table and got to work. 

Grace, dressed all in red (her favorite color) was painting her shoes red – what else? — and orange.

DeLane’s shoes were also red, with some pretty purple swirls and dots.

Here are the results of a few hours of painting (well, truth be told, I was so excited to try this that I did one shoe last night!). Michele and DeLane already have the acrylic sealer on theirs; that is why they look shiny. Mine look shiny because I used metallic paint. And you can see the white gesso still showing on my clog that is in progress. Grace is still working on her pair, too, adding some nice details on the red sections. 

DeLane’s ruby slippers

Michele’s gray clogs

Grace’s red-and-orange swirly shoes

This photo shows how I started out on the gessoed shoes, penciling in the basic areas to paint. The shoe on the right is almost done, but still needs a coat of acrylic sealant. These are several-years-old Dansko clogs that had started to get a bit scratched up. I considered painting cheapie shoes, but after having a painful foot condition (plantar fasciitis) that lasted nearly 18 months, I have to be very careful to wear well-constructed shoes with good arch support. And I figure if you are going to spend the time to make a pair of shoes a work of art, you might as well start with good shoes, right? I can’t wait to finish these up and wear them!